The Chant Review (Twisted_Mind)
So, it may be this isn't for me, but as someone who enjoys horror games I feel the need to weigh in. This is a case of "I wish Steam had a middle of the road option" or something a little more in depth than yay or nay. The game has an interesting premise, with some interesting ideas. Immediately with the three bars for your Mind, Body and Spirit I was reminded of Eternal Darkness, which I loved, but it felt like I never had any issue with mind, while I was constantly starved for spirit, and other than making you run from a fight, mind never really seems to be an issue when drained, which I feel they could have learned from Eternal Darkness, assuming they took any inspiration, and made more scary psychadellic hallucinations when you have low mind, as opposed to the screen just draining of colour. The other thing is that I noticed on the Steam page it encourages you to pick your battles, because your resources are limited, which rings totally hollow for me because you are never really sure what rooms are important, if a room has resources you need, if you're going to be coming back to an area later so it may be worth battling enemies within the moment, because more than once I spot other doors that I can't do anything with now, which I assume I'll be coming back for later. Without any of this knowledge, 'picking your battles' is a frustrating task. The combat is passable, light attack, strong attack, different weapons for different enemies, but your weapons break constantly and you need to craft new ones using limited resources. The "magic" is interesting, but I found myself constantly out of spirit because the things to replenish it seem to be more rare than the resources to heal your mind or body. The whole package is pretty alright. The story and writing I can't comment on, it seems very cheesey and the voice acting can be a little weird, but I can enjoy that. If there is ever a second game or if the team makes another horror game, I hope this game made for a great learning experience, and that things could be tightened up and improved. Get the game on sale, and give it a try, maybe you'll vibe with it more than I did.